Pete Domenici: “I rise to address Senator McConnell, the chairman of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, about the…”

“I rise to address Senator McConnell, the chairman of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, about the Antiterrorism Training Assistance Program, or ATAP. I note that the supplemental appropriations bill includes $52 million for the State Department to establish the Center for Antiterrorism and Security Training (CAST) in Maryland. These funds were deferred from the Consolidated appropriations Resolution for Fiscal Year 2003 with the understanding that they would be included in an appropriate vehicle, which is this bill. CAST will be a central training academy for the State Department. It will be a while before the new center is operational, which makes it difficult for me to understand the actions of the State Department to eliminate and scale back existing antiterrorism training programs that have been successfully carried out by Louisiana State University (LSU) and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) for the past several years. In fact, LSU has been carrying out this training for the State Department for over a decade. New Mexico Tech has partnered with LSU since January 2000. The State Department has relocated the Hostage Negotiations Program from New Mexico Tech to LSU, and it has advised New Mexico Tech that it will relocate the Rural Border Operations Course to a facility on a military base in Albuquerque.”